Erick Yoakum

Helios Scholar

Cervical cancer affects Hispanic women at a significantly higher rate than non-Hispanic white women, yet screening and vaccination rates do not fully account for this disparity. This study aims to investigate whether there are differences in human papillomavirus (HPV) subtype prevalence and viral integration sites among various genetic ancestry groups.  Whole exome sequencing and HPV-specific sequencing were performed on tumor samples from a diverse cohort of cervical cancer patients seen at City of Hope. The analysis focused on HPV subtype detection and viral integration site comparisons between Latin American and European ancestry groups. Our results showed no significant differences in the frequency of HPV subtypes between the Latin American and European cohorts, with HPV16 and HPV18 being the most common HPV subtypes detected across both groups. However, we observed a trend toward increased viral integration events in known hotspot genes in the European cohort and identified novel, recurrent viral integration sites that were enriched in the Latin American cohort. These findings suggest that genetic ancestry may influence HPV integration patterns, potentially contributing to differences in cervical cancer characteristics among populations. Further research with larger cohorts is needed to validate these findings and to evaluate the clinical significance of these novel integration events with respect to cervical cancer biology.